Juan Martin del Potro beats Milos Raonic to win Japan Open

Top seed Juan Martin del Potro beat Canada's Milos Raonic in the battle of the big servers yesterday to bag the Japan Open title and boost his chances of qualifying for the end-of-season ATP World Tour finals in London.

The 25-year-old Argentine, a last-minute wild-card entry for injured Andy Murray, won 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 with the lone break of serve of the match coming at the fag end of the second set as Raonic lost the final in Tokyo for the second year running.

The win gave Del Potro his third title of the year and moved him up to fifth spot in the race to London, while Raonic is 10th in the qualification race for next month's tournament involving the top eight players in the world.

Raonic, 22, who finished runner-up to Kei Nishikori last year, fired 17 aces and was untroubled in his service games before a crucial double fault in the first-set tie-breaker put Del Potro ahead.

The Argentine got his first break point opportunity in the 11th game of the second set and managed to convert the third to go 6-5 up before holding on in the next game to win in an hour and 43 minutes.

"I played really well in the last two games of the match, returning all of his first serves," Del Potro said. "It was a fantastic week for me as I played better and better with each match.